Obsession

03

It had been three weeks since my sister attempted to fracture my skull, and the scars were beginning to fade.
That meant it was safe for me to go back to school.

That also meant it had been three weeks since I saw Tyrone and Jason. They had offered to come visit when they heard I had an "accident", but I did not want them anywhere near Anne. I had done a good job of keeping them away from this side of my life for so long, and I that was not about to change anytime soon.

It was Monday morning, and. I had no idea how to get to school. I definitely was not borrowing Anne's car again, but I did not want to take public transportation either.

I wanted to call the guys, but I remembered they had both been relying on me to get to school for a while now. Then again, they had managed just fine without me the past three weeks. Maybe I should just skip, I thought.

Eventually, I decided against calling Ty, but I was still going to school. I just needed to know how. I got dressed and prepared to leave the apartment, but on my way out, I saw (to my surprise) my sister sprawled out on the sofa. In one hand, she a bottle of some sort of alcohol, but she was fast asleep. I wondered how she still had her job at the hospital at this point. She was drunk half the time, surely someone must have noticed by now.

I tippy-toed past her and slipped through the door. I made my way hurriedly to the lift which was just at the end of corridor.

"The stairs are the other way," someone said from behind me.

"I'm taking the lift."

"That thing has been broken for a month now," the voice replied.

And so began the long walk of shame in the opposite direction. Well, it was only a few meters, but you get the idea. What made it even more embarrassing was that the girl who pointed this out to me had a huge grin plastered across her face as I slowly walked towards her.

Then I realized something. She was the same girl who had been in the music room with us the last time I went to school. I wondered what she was doing here on a Thursday morning, but then I answered myself. She lived in this building too. It also explained why she knew my name. What my theory did not explain was why I had never seen her before, so I asked.

"Hey, do you live here?"

"Nope, my dad does. I just visit sometimes. I assume you don't know my name, so I'm Taylor. I must warn you though, I'm not very swift."

"I see what you did there. Very smart."

"Thanks."

This was my opportunity to ask the most important question of my life. "So how are you getting to school?"(Okay it may not have been the most important question of my life, but I needed a ride.)

"Oh, uh, my dad is gonna drive me. He's already downstairs in fact. Why do you ask?"

This was the moment. I had to decide between an uncomfortable car ride with two strangers, or an uncomfortable bus ride with many strangers.

"Do you mind if I tag along?" I asked shamelessly.

"Well I don't, but my dad might. We'll ask him when we get down," she replied.

The trip down the stairs was one of the most physically demanding things I had done in a while.

"I can't go on. Go without me."

"You've only gone down three steps."

"First of all, it's three and a half, seeing as my right foot is already on the fourth step. Also, that's three and a half steps more than I would usually take.